Leningrad

As work started on LAES-2, a complex of six power station units with VVER-1200 reactors that is due to complement the existing four 4 RBMK-1000 units of Leningrad Nuclear Power Station (LAES), environmentalists began a protest campaign against what they call an illegitimate and potentially hazardous construction.

Russia intends to build 26 major nuclear power reactors over twelve years to come, chief of the state-run corporation Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, said. Kiriyenko was speaking at the 52nd general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on 29th september.

"The pace of commissioning new nuclear power reactors is pegged to our current plans, but it can be adjusted in terms of scale and deadlines," he said."Construction work is underway at five sites (Leningrad, Novovoronezh, Kalinin, Rostov and Beloyarsk NPPs)," he said, adding that design and exploration work was in progress on another 14 reactor projects.

MOSCOW, May 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russian nuclear power agency Rosatom dismissed on Saturday rumors circulating in the country's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad of a radioactive leak from a plant in neighboring Lithuania.

Rosatom spokesman Sergei Novikov said several journalists had contacted him on Friday asking about an alleged accident at Lithuania's nuclear plant.

Panic gripped many in the city Wednesday after rumors spread that a serious accident had happened at the Leningrad Nuclear Power Station (LAES) in Sosnovy Bor, a town 70 kilometers west of St. Petersburg.

The power station operates four Chernobyl-type reactors and has a history of minor accidents.